Lili hits Cuba, heads toward US Gulf coast
Date: 03-Oct-02
Country: CUBA
Author: Rodrigo Martinez
It was the second major storm to hit the tobacco-growing Pinar del Rio province in 11 days, a one-two punch not felt in Cuba since 1948. No casualties were reported.
Cuba evacuated 360,000 people from low-lying coastal areas and precarious housing.
NASA postponed Wednesday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Atlantis as the hurricane moved into the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch, meaning possible hurricane conditions within 36 hours, was in effect along the U.S. Gulf coast from San Louis Pass, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Lili is currently a category 2 storm, capable of damaging homes and trees, felling some trees and causing considerable damage to mobile homes and poorly built signs and piers.
A day after pounding Jamaica, where floods and mudslides killed four people, Lili plowed through the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio, picking up speed and moving into the southeastern Gulf.
"Isidore was nothing compared to this one," Pedro Lillo, 67, told Reuters as he watched the wind blow away half his roof in the coastal village of Cortes. "The hurricane took everything."
Reuters reporters who witnessed Lili's passage from the eye of the storm said fallen trees and telephone lines blocked streets. Power supplies were down and small roads to some small towns were cut off.
"My God, my house was small but it was my house. Now I have no house!" wept a woman on the outskirts of Pinar del Rio city, who gave her name only as Zenaide. The wooden home had listed completely to one side.
The storm shattered windows, damaged roofs and cut power supplies at Isle of Youth tourist resorts, which have been empty of visitors since the wrath of the last hurricane.
"This was worse than Isidore. We still had not recovered from that storm," said Pedro Gomez, manager of Hotel Colony on the western side of the island, where 18,000 tons of grapefruit were destroyed by Isidore.
Lili followed a track similar to that of Hurricane Isidore, which caused extensive flooding in Cuba's western tip only 11 days ago, before battering Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
President Fidel Castro visited Pinar del Rio to inspect the damage and remarked to reporters that "this one brought more winds than the last one." But he added that Cuba had enough food and building materials stockpiled to deal with the damage.
Cuba's chief meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said Lili moved across the island faster and caused less damage than Isidore.
HEADED FOR UNITED STATES
Cuban meteorologists said Lili could gather more force as it moved out over the warm Gulf.
Lili was moving northwest at about 15 mph (24 kph) and was currently projected to hit a point on the U.S. coast near the Texas-Louisiana border during Thursday, U.S. forecasters said.
At 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the center of Lili was located about 560 miles (901 km) southeast of New Orleans, at latitude 23.0 degrees north, longitude 85.6 degrees west.
Mexico declared a tropical storm watch, meaning possible tropical storm conditions within 36 hours, for Yucatan's north coast from Cozumel to Progreso. A tropical storm watch was also in effect east of the mouth of the Mississippi River to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Cuba's Communist authorities, well organized for natural disasters, ordered collection of bananas and other ripening fruit ahead of the storm and shut schools in affected areas. By Tuesday evening in Pinar del Rio, the heavy rain was abating and authorities said they were evaluating damage. Workers were removing fallen electricity and phone cables.
Cuba is still recovering from last year's Hurricane Michelle, the island's worst storm in half a century that killed five people, made 200,000 homeless and caused $1.8 billion in damage.
Tobacco stocks were barely damaged by Isidore and even less damage was expected from Lili. Further east, Cuba's most impo